This past weekend, MILBLOGGERS and friends gathered for the 2nd Annual 2007 MilBlog Conference.

Andi of Andi’s World pulled the event together, with sponsors including Military.com, USAA, Soldiers’ Angels, Minimus.biz , and Excalibur Research and Development. MILBLOGS provided a live video feed of the Conference, and Mudville Gazette’s own Mrs. Greyhawk moderated on-line chat for virtual conference attendees.

I tried my hand at live-blogging the Conference, unofficially. That’s not the best way to enjoy an event in which you have any personal interest. I hope to get a chance this week to clean-up my posts, and maybe pare them down to an Intro post and maybe one for each of the 4 panels. (I think I have over 20 of them sitting out there now, scroll down for the play-by-play.)

For a round-up of other post-conference feedback, see Andi’s post up on the Conference website.

I think the high point for me was having the President of the United States send us a video greeting, recognizing MILBLOGS for how much they contribute to the effort, in encouraging our military, informing the public, and combating propaganda and other oppositional mainstream media (MSM).

Okay, he didn’t say that last part, but I’m pretty sure he was thinking it.

Other highlights included the live feed from Rear Admiral Fox in Iraq, Matt Burden (Blackfive) passing along the letters written by Senators on behalf of MILBLOGS over the OPSEC controversy, and all the well-deserved visibility given to Soldiers Angels.

One of the Senatorial communications Blackfive came across was a letter from – choke on liquid hazard warning – Sen. Ted Kennedy. (More on the OPSEC story in a later post.)

It was great to see my friends from last year’s conference, really great to see all the media attention, and a pleasure to meet in person Greyhawk, Mrs. Greyhawk, Hook, Armed Liberal Marc Danziger from Winds of Change, Eagle1 of Eaglespeak, and so many of the good people from SA.

Summary of Live Blogging:
Conference Keynote Addresses
From the Front
All in the Family
Rapid Fire Roundtable
Support -- More than Just a Bumper Sticker
Wrap-up